Posted on 08/20/2007 10:18:09 AM PDT by SmithL
Like Cinderella before she met the fairy godmother, the tattered former naval air station in Alameda is still waiting for its transformation into an oasis of mixed-use development, wildlife preserve, sports complex and regional parkland.
But the decade-old dream will take what officials are calling a historic step into reality Wednesday, when ground is broken on the first piece of the park component.
Down will come a fence that has long blocked public access to the bay, and down will come signs declaring, "Restricted Area - Keep Out." An old residual trail along the formerly off-limits shoreline - now part dirt and part gravel - will be replaced with a 10-foot-wide ribbon of asphalt running half a mile from the Encinal boat landing to the museum ship Hornet, an aircraft carrier.
"It's really the first step in a long-term vision to extend access to the waterfront at a former military base that historically had no access," said Leslie Little, development services director for the city of Alameda.
The trail - with its spectacular views of the bay - also will begin what officials hope will be a 7-mile loop around Alameda Point, the mostly shuttered and rundown old base that the Navy closed in 1997. The loop in turn would complete a missing part of the San Francisco Bay Trail, a grand network of trails along shorelines around the entire bay.
"It's the beginning of the Bay Trail around Alameda Point," said Doug Siden, a board member of the East Bay Regional Park District and Alameda resident.
Siden will wield a fence-cutter Wednesday when he and Alameda Mayor Beverly Johnson cut through the chain-link fence that blocks access to the trail site and the bay.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
This should be very good news for USS Hornet, which is out in the boondocks, as far as tourism is concerned. USS Pampanito has done exceptionally well, due to all the foot traffic on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. Maybe now, the Hornet will finally get visitors in significant numbers.
I’ve been on and off that runway a few times. It’s hard for me to visualize the place without Ranger, Oriskany, John Hancock, or Enterprise parked there.
But they are oh so sensitive in the Bay Area about anything related to the military, so they probably won’t want a military ship docked there.
Some of the opposition to the military in S.F. and environs is due to don’t ask / don’t tell in the military. I expect that don’t ask / don’t tell will eventually be done away with. When they get rid of that policy, I want to see if the antipathy to the military changes. Or if they come up with another excuse not to honor the military.
The Mythbusters are Deeply Saddened.
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It will be nice for this old base to finally be fixed up and become connected with the community. I was there from Oct 95 - Jan 97 when the base closed. I was stationed on the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70)
I did part of a WestPac on the Hancock and a WepTriX on the Ranger 1961-62...!!!.......
And I was a 5th grader in El Paso when you did.
Fair winds my friend.
I was with VA-115 of CAG-11 and also did the Maiden voyage around South America on the Kitty Hawk CVA-63 and another WepTriX on the Bennington.
I take it then that you were an airdale.
Yeoman
Ah. Well, all the squadrons and carriers...I just assumed. Take care.
Let's raise a car, in a toast to the passing of the place where so many myths were busted, some confirmed.
Oh well, there's still the ex-Hamilton Air Force Base....
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